Downward spiraling Bundesliga striker Victor Boniface may undergo season-ending knee surgery

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Sport Bild reports that Bayer Leverkusen striker Victor Boniface may soon undergo season-ending knee surgery. The Nigerian’s current loan stint with fellow Bundesliga side Werder Bremen has proven an absolute disaster. Leverkusen doctors are thus, per the tabloid, looking to get the 24-year-old off the pitch and out of the limelight. 

What has gone wrong for Victor Boniface at Bremen?

Everything. Leverkusen attempted to loan Boniface out to the Serie A, but a deal to send him to collapsed after a failed medical and fitness concerns. The former Leverkusen star arrived at his new club in terrible shape, leaving head coach Horst Steffen to declare that – despite his talent – he would have to work his way up slowly to match fitness. 

Steffen possessed no qualms about criticizing Boniface’s erratic performance on the pitch on he began making substitute appearances. The 13-times-capped international did not help his own case when he began publishing weirdly cryptic social media posts and seemed to demonstrate little interest in raising his fitness level.

To date, Boniface has still not scored a goal for his loan club. Steffen tapped him for starts on matchdays eight and nine before quickly pulling the plug. Boniface was only used four times off the bench afterwards. The knee knock sustained in the “Nordderby” loss to Hamburger SV has kept him off the training pitch for the last two weeks. 

Transfermarkt has twice downgraded Boniface’s estimated market value this autumn. The striker entered the season considered a €40m-valued. After two major downgrade’s, he’s now a €12m-valued listing. 

GGFN | Peter Weis